Higher Education Archive Programme: a collaborative placement with the archive sector
Student placement project
- Project supervisors
Helena Smart
- Department
Archive Sector Leadership
- Maximum number of student placements available on the project per academic year
One
- Level of study
Open to PhD and MA/MSc students
- Deadline for Expressions of Interest from students
8 January 2027 (17:00)
- Specific knowledge and/or skills required for the placement:
Experience of managing data and basic analysis skills. Experience of using HE archive collections would be desirable.
Project description
Part of The National Archives' Archive Sector Leadership (ASL) role is to facilitate the Higher Education Archive Programme (HEAP). HEAP is a mixture of strategic and practical work encompassing activity across The National Archives and the wider sector, including guidance and training, pilot projects and advocacy. HEAP have a Steering Group comprised of HE professionals who, together with ASL, provide support to the HE sector.
HEAP are revisiting a piece of work commissioned in 2016 'Collecting Drivers for Higher Education Institutions'. As a starting point and part of wider advocacy work for the HE sector, HEAP wish to establish what information is publicly available on HE collecting over the past 10 years. This student placement opportunity would support this work, while gaining experience and knowledge of working with HEI archive services.
Activities include
- The student would collect and interrogate data collected over the past 10 years by The National Archives and third parties
- Research what collections information is made available from HE institutions
- Develop a report on collecting themes over the past 10 years and what collections information is made available to the public. Supported by the Steering Group and ASL there will be sessions on how and why data is collected with appropriate data sharing to support this work. The Steering Group would assist with identifying and interrogating third-party data.